Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday reviewed the preparations for the high-speed train station at Antroli in Surat, a day ahead of the expected visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Vaishnao visited Antroli at 6.30 pm and conducted a detailed review of the preparations and assessed the progress of civil works, passenger facilities and security arrangements at the station.
According to sources, Prime Minister Modi will land at Surat airport early on Saturday and board a helicopter to reach Neol village. From there, PM Modi’s convoy will reach Antroli village in Balsana taluka, where the high-speed train station is located.
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Prime Minister Modi will inspect the preparedness and progress of the work and talk to the workers at around 10:00 am. After staying for about 15 minutes, he is expected to fly to Narmada district.
The Antroli station – whose design resembles Surat’s sparkling diamond industry – is part of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor (MAHSRC).
Works at the high-speed train station are nearing completion, including laying the railway lines. Works such as architectural decoration, elevators, escalators, waiting lounges, kiosks and other passenger facilities are also likely to be completed in the coming days.
The sources said that the station is built on three levels and has a total height of 26.3 meters with a building area of 58,352 square meters.
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Parking, pick-up and drop-off (for cars, buses and cars), security screening, elevator and escalators are located on the ground floor. There will be a waiting lounge, restrooms, kiosk and ticket office on the lobby level. According to sources in MAHSRC, construction of the platform has been completed at railway level.
The total length of the MAHSRC will be around 508 km, of which 352 km will be in Gujarat and DNH (Union Territory) and 156 km in Maharashtra, connecting major cities of both the states. About 85 per cent of the bullet train route from Mumbai to Ahmedabad will be bridges, minimizing land disturbance. So far, bridge works of 326 km have been completed and 17 out of 25 river bridges have already been built. The project is expected to boost economic activities between Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Sources say the trial run will be conducted between Surat and Billimora in Navsari, a distance of approximately 47 km. Work on this path is almost complete.
(tags for translation) PM Modi
